When the email went out asking for volunteers interested in serving on a statewide student advisory council, Oliver Barrera immediately put his name in.

The North Chicago Community High School student had been the first name to pop into Stephanie Oettinger's head too.

The director of North Chicago's Schuler Scholars program, Oettinger had been approached by then-Superintendent Ben Martindale about finding a North Chicago student to serve on the Illinois State Board of Education's Student Advisory Council.

The group of students — a collection of 18 sophomore, junior and senior high school students from across the state this year — was tasked with providing student perspectives on education issues to the state board in charge of overseeing education in Illinois.

A Schuler Scholar seemed like a good choice, since students in the program are selected in eighth grade by a nonprofit that works with underrepresented students to help them get into and succeed at highly selective private colleges and universities.

Barrera seemed like the perfect choice, "a very vocal, confident, opinionated student" who discovered an interest in social justice, immigration and feminism his sophomore year, Oettinger said.

His interest had started through the Schuler Scholars' reading enrichment program where former scholars were paired with current scholars, Barrera said.

His coach was a former Waukegan High School student who attended Swarthmore College and had advocated for the Dream Act, legislation that would provide legal status to immigrants who had been brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

She suggested reading "In the Time of the Butterflies," a novel that explores Dominican Republican history during the reign of the dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Another coach recommended "The Handmaid's Tale," a book that envisions a totalitarian society where women have no rights.

Their conversations explored ideas that Barrera had never really discussed before and gave him a new way to look at things, he said.

"The Schuler Scholar program has given me a chance to understand things outside of North Chicago, outside of what I've experienced," Barrera said.

His interest led the Schuler Scholars program to send him to Junior Statesmen of America and the National Hispanic Institute conferences as part of the program's efforts to expose students to all sorts of different experiences, including on-campus summer programs and trips to the opera, Oettinger said.

Walking into the first Student Advisory Council in Springfield last year, Barrera didn't really know what to expect, he said. The 16-student group was smaller than he expected, and while the group had racial diversity, he was the only Hispanic.

He was really nervous and uncomfortable, Oettinger said. She talked him through it, and he decided he was going to stick with it.

"Some students are really scared of things, and so they won't even try," Oettering said. "He tried but then he got scared. Yet he still persisted even though he was nervous and uncomfortable."

Oettinger said she thinks the experience will be a good one for Barrera, who is looking at small private colleges where he will likely be in the minority.

"Going to North Chicago, he's in the majority," she said. "This is where he's grown up, and he hasn't had exposure to people who are significantly different to him. It was very uncomfortable for him. He felt really pushed out of his comfort zone."

About 60 percent of North Chicago Community High School's 770 students are Hispanic, according to state data. Another 36 percent are black.

About 98 percent of students are considered low-income, meaning they receive free or reduced-price lunches or their families receive public aid, according to state data.

This fall, Barrera, now 17, is starting his second year on the council, and he said he he feels more prepared to put himself out there, be more vocal and challenge ideas he doesn't agree with.

"I wasn't really used to people not necessarily understanding the struggles my community faces," he said. "Dealing with that helped me — not necessarily (to) 'other' them or 'other' myself from them, but just know that my voice matters and everyone's voice matters."

Barrera's mother, Dina Renderos, isn't surprised that he's kept with the council despite the challenges, she said in Spanish.

When he was about eight years old, they had gone to the park where a bunch of games and competitions were being held, she said. Barrera kept losing, but he just kept trying.